Bernadette Keeler
Bernadette Keeler was the great-great-great-grandniece of Bill Keeler and the Aunt of Honoria Keeler. In the 76th Sapphirean Century (74th Solar Century), she was the matriarch of the Keeler family on Sapphire . After graduating with an Advanced from degree from the University of Sapphire at New Cleveland Business School and Nightclub, she "persuaded" (a rather tepid word for what actually took place) the family to let her manage the family investments. Her investments in Lokian real estate were widely criticized. She invested 100 million Sapphirean bucks in a multi-domed structure on Loki she called the K-Plex, adjacent to Loki’s largest city, an entire development planned to accommodate a million inhabitants. It was wildly successful, and within ten years, her initial investment had increased in value ten times over. She also managed to exit the Loki real estate market just before it crashed. She went on to launch several other ventures. *K-Power, a network of Thorium power reactors providing energy to the urban metroplexes on Loki. *K-Shuttle, a transport service running cargo and passengers between Sapphire, Republic, Loki, and stations in the outer systems. *K-Netics, a corporation involved in the development and commercialization of technologies developed on other worlds. *K-Work, an employment service that matched qualified workers with permanent, temporary, and contract positions on Loki and other worlds. *K-Go-Mart – A line of convenience and immediate food stores on Loki, Sapphire, Republic and stations throughout the systems *She built the tallest tower block on Loki, called the K-Tower, located in the City of Hell, it houses numerous trading companies involved the Stock Exchange From Hell, which is the central exchange for companies located on Loki. Her signature restaurant, “A Taste of Hell,” operated on the top four floors. *She became the founder and principle shareholder in the Astra Consortium, a private space exploration venture that collected data on unexplored systems and sold it to governments and other galactic interests. *She and several other investors financed Hell’s Sport Complex, an arena for the city’s roundball team that also hosts other sporting and cultural events. The same investment group owns shares in Hell’s roundball, groundball, rounders, and air hockey teams. These investments expanded the Keeler fortune by billions of bucks. At the height of her success, she cashed out her shares, leaving the family investments in the care of trusted advisers. With her own money, she began to pursue her own interests and ventures. It wasn't enough to be the richest, most successful woman on two planets... her ambitions were getting bigger. At one point, she considered purchasing Sapphire's moon of Ulysses. Then, she changed her mind, saying, "What the hell do I need a moon for?" It was clear she was restless, even depressed, trying to figure out how to harness her ambition and wealth. She had long expressed the view that her achievement s paled next to those of her ancestor, Lexington Keeler; who had set the destiny of an entire planet. It wasn't modesty that drove her to say that, but resentment. She wanted to figure out a way to outdo him. "If Lex Keeler shaped the destiny of a world, I'll shape the destiny of the whole human race." Shortly thereafter, she founded and became the majority stakeholder in the Astra Space Consortium. It was intended as a private enterprise to challenge the New Commonwealth Space Authority and the Space Exploration Consortium of the Free Worlds Alliance. The Astra Consortium built a fleer of very fast ships, packed with surveying equipment and manned by small crews, with the mission of mapping uncharted systems and selling the data to whoever would buy it. (Book 12: Earth) Covertly, the purpose of the Astra Consortium was to secure Old Commonwealth and other technology so that it could be applied and commercialized. Even more covertly, the purpose of the Astra Consortium was to seek out an uncharted but habitable planet for her to establish her own colony on. Such a world was found on a routine survey in the Triangulum Sector. Bernadette immediately moved to establish 'Keeler Colony,' with the aim of bringing a million of the sector's most brilliant scientists, cyberneticists, and engineers to the same world, and build a society that would lead the human race into the fute. Toward that end, she launched 'Project Alpha,' a project to find an uninhabited habitable planet and begin a colony of carefully selected engineers, scientists, and researchers, with an eye toward developing an extremely advanced society. She also issued secret orders to the crews of Astra Consortium Ships to bring back any Comonwealth technology they came across. She was known to trod around the Keeler Estate with two fierce auto-mechanical Trauma Hounds she named Ace and Gary. She never married, but kept company with Scarlet Ibis, an exotic and beautiful woman 20 years her junior who emigrated to Loki from Aventine colony. Category:Characters